"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A professional escort who travels the East Coast seeing clients in cities from Miami to Boston has identified a photo of Senator Bob Menendez as a man who paid her for sex. The woman, in her late 30s, told The Daily Caller prior to seeing Menendez’s photo that she had been paid to provide sexual favors to several U.S. senators, including a New Jersey Democrat and other politicians who are no longer living.
The escort, who earns money having sex with men in upscale hotel rooms, said during an in-person interview that many of her wealthy and powerful customers use pseudonyms when arranging for her services, and when meeting her in person. . . .
The woman granted multiple interviews to The Daily Caller after reading TheDC’s reporting on the fast-evolving Menendez saga.

You can read the rest. I would be cautious about a source like this, who contacts reporters after reading coverage of a scandal. Not to say that I doubt Senator Menendez patronizes prostitutes, just saying that without some corroborating evidence — a credit card receipt, a hotel bill, etc. — I’d be cautious about the source. Perhaps the Daily Caller has such corroboration and is witholding it.

The question of whether Menendez was in the habit of patronizing prostitutes is, of course, relevant to his relationship with Florida businessman Salomon Melgen and their alleged sex parties in the Dominican Republic, where prostitution is legal, but where at least one Dominican prostitute told reporter Matthew Boyle that she had sex with Menendez when she was 15, which is illegal even there.

If Menendez is indeed a corrupt scoundrel — and sources familiar with the story assure me that the New Jersey Democrat is, well, a New Jersey Democrat — then he’s now resorted to a sort of defamation to defend himself against the truth:

Sen. Robert Menendez, bedeviled in recent weeks by questions over his conduct, told hundreds gathered for a Black History Month celebration today that he found strength in the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Dr. King said that ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,’” Mendez said, prompting calls of “alright” from some in the audience at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton. “In the end, I believe that justice will overcome the forces of darkness. Scriptures — scriptures tell us that he who ‘puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.’
“I have my hand on the plough,” he said, “and I am going to continue to look forward and to work to make that plough lead us to the fulfillment of educational, economic and health care opportunity in this country.”
After slipping away from Washington for a week to meet with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Menendez returned to New Jersey to find himself down sharply in the polls.
But he did not hide from his troubles. Rather, the New Jersey Democrat addressed the accusations of impropriety as he lashed out: “Now we face anonymous, faceless, nameless individuals from right-wing sources seeking to destroy a lifetime of work. And their scares are false. I have worked too hard and too long in the vineyards to allow, at my hands, for the harvest to be soured.”

A local citizen who lives near Teterboro airport in northern New Jersey said he saw Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his friend Democratic Party mega-donor Dr. Salomon Melgen brunching together on Easter Sunday in 2012.
The citizen, who is active in local politics and a regular patron of the restaurant, told Breitbart News he saw Menendez and Melgen dining together at Arena Diner between shortly before noon and 12:15 p.m. on Easter Sunday last year, April 8, 2012. That is the timeframe in which Melgen’s plane refueled at Teterboro before flying directly to the Dominican Republic.

The question of Menendez’s whereabouts on Easter weekend arose because travel records showed Dr. Melgen’s plane flying to New Jersey that weekend before flying to the Dominican Republic, while Menendez — who has admitted other trips aboard Dr. Melgen’s plan — has denied making this specific trip. It seems rather odd that Dr. Melgen would have flown all the way to New Jersey merely to have brunch with the senator. Why?

“It seems rather odd that Dr. Melgen would have flown all the way to New Jersey merely to have brunch with the senator. Why?”

Small plane pilots call that the “hundred dollar hamburger” but even private jets raise that price more than airport food can justify.

Nevertheless, Stacy, you miss the point: paid sex, even paid sex with children, is now just fine as long as liberals see their leaders doing it. As they keep telling me.

http://wizbangblog.com/ Adjoran

Puh-leeze! This “witness” doesn’t pass the laugh test, claiming to have serviced “several” Senators, some of whom are conveniently dead? Smells like a set-up to me.

Tucker Carlson, knowing nothing about reporting, is a natural sucker for this sort of crap. McCain should know better.

The story here isn’t sex, it is corruption. He sold his influence as a Senator, sex MAY have been the currency in which he took payment, but that is secondary. But the DC/TOM obsession with the sex aspects may provide Menendez the cover the needs by blundering blindly forward wherever their pointers lead.

Get it? Pile on this story, the hooker is then exposed as a liar and a fake, which is then used to discredit the entire scandal story, enabling Menendez to survive.

http://boogieforward.us/ K-Bob

If the man were totally guilty, I would expect a simple denial, and referrals to his lawyer with lawsuit implications.

Instead we’re getting the usual firehose of racism charges, posturing, a trip to a black church, and mounting distractions, just as we saw with Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner.

I’d say it’s looking grim for the Senator. After all, Billy Graham is probably not going to be available to take his call.